1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contactless connector which contactlessly sends and receives data and, in particular, to a contactless connector which constitutes a light path in a circumferential direction in which a rotating body rotates.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, data has been sent and received between a rotating side and fixed side. For example, a video signal or the like from a rotatable camera is transmitted to a fixed-side signal processing portion, and so forth. In this case, by directly connecting the camera and the signal processing portion by wire, the video signal from the camera have been transmitted to the fixed side signal processing portion. However, with the advances of wireless signal technology in recent years, it has become possible to perform data transmission and reception between the rotating side and the fixed side, even without a direct wire connection.
However, there has been the problem that it is difficult to supply contactlessly power from the fixed side to the rotating side, if the data is transmitted wirelessly from the rotating side to the fixed side.
Therefore, conventionally, a plurality of light-emitting elements have been provided on the top of a disk-shaped rotating body and a plurality of light-receiving elements of a fixed body have been provided in positions facing the light-emitting elements, data has been transmitted and received contactlessly, and a rotating transformer is constituted between the rotating side and fixed side, whereby the contacless supply of power from the fixed side to the rotating side has been (see Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2002-75760, for example).
However, in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2002-75760, as the data communication speed is increased it may not necessarily be possible to transmit all the data from the light-emitting element of the rotating body to the light-receiving element of the fixed body. That is, in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2002-75760, the light path from light-emitting elements is switched to other light-receiving elements because the contactless light connection between the light elements is broken due to the rotation of the rotating body. In this switching method, as the data communication speed is increased there are cases in which data is transmitted faster than the time for processing to switch the light pass, so that the continuity of communication cannot be secured.